Gil By The Numbers

With thanks to Adventures In Tinpot for compiling this list of incidents in the life of one Jesus Gil.

Gregorio Jesús Gil y Gil, or Jesus Gil is predominately known for his managerial hirings and firings whilst President of Atletico Madrid. His life was mired in corruption and scandal, within the football world and outside. This page takes a look at the life of this politician, football club President and crook, through a series of, often ridiculous, numbers that chart his life.

19 – Number of prostitutes that a 17 year old Gil shared a house with, along with one priest. Gil maintained the accounts of the establishment in lieu of paying rent. Would have made an interesting Gumtree advert this one:

Wanted: One male housemate required to share house with 19 crackwhores and a priest. No, this is not the set up to an elaborate joke. Must be named after the Messiah and with a lax attitude towards accepted accounting procedures.

28 – Age at which Jesus got married to Maria de los Angeles Marin Cobo. Together they had a daughter and three sons.

58 – Number of people killed as a result of the collapse of a restaurant roof at Gil’s newly-completed hotel complex at San Rafael in June 1969. An investigation into the incident found that the cement had not been given enough time to dry, that the complex had been constructed without
consultation with any architect or surveyor and that no plans existed for the site.

5 – Number of years that Gil was sentenced to prison for his neglect of building regulations in the San Rafael incident.

18 – The number of months that Gil actually served in prison after being pardoned by General Franco, who Gil was not shy in admitting his admiration for.

36(DD) – Size of Gil’s ample man boobs (maybe) that led to him attending a weight loss clinic in Marbella in 1979. Gil then decided that Marbella was the ideal place for him to play building sites again and throughout the 1980’s he played a major role in the development of the resort. Once again he paid only a customary glance towards building and planning regulations, resulting in the town’s socialist council declaring him persona non grata in 1988.

2,500,000 – Amount in pounds that Gil’s first signing as President of Atletico Madrid in 1987, Paulo Futre, admitted to receiving in illegal payments from Gil. Gil was to oversee another 140 transfers in his years in charge at Atletico.

93 – Number of days ‘Big’ Ron Atkinson lasted as manager, before being fired by Gil in 1989. In total Gil employed 39 managers in his years 16 at Atletico.

1 – Number of songs released by the band Prolapse, in 1994 called “Surreal Madrid” that Gil was the subject of.

0 – Number of letters different between his surname and the name of the political party he founded, Grupo Independiente Liberal (GIL). Gil led GIL to victory in the 1991 Marbella council elections after vowing to clean up the resort which he saw as “full of prostitutes, lesbians and drug dealers”

He used his position for his own benefit and was able to expand and protect his own property empire and his behaviour became even more outrageous. Some notable examples include installing a bust of Franco in the town hall (presumably Gil designed, planned and built it himself out of Jacobs Cream Crackers, used toothpicks and candyfloss) and routinely walking the streets insulting prostitutes, who he threatened to round up and place in a purpose-built “whoreodrome”.

18 – Number of months that UEFA disqualified him for for calling a French referee a homosexual. “He was offered a blue-eyed boy. I know, I’ve seen him,” said Gil, whilst taking a break from clumsily artexing a wall in 1991.

10 – Number of scantily clad women surrounding a topless Gil in a jacuzzi in this clip from his TV show, Las Noches de Tal y Tal. (which according to Google translate might be The Nights of Such and Such) in 1991.

16,400 – Amount in pounds that the Spanish FA fined Gil in 1991 for screaming at a referee that he should see a psychiatrist. In the same year he racially insulted his own player, the Colombian Adolfo Valencia, threatening to “cut his black head off”.

15 – The age that Raul was in 1992 when he was forced to leave the Atletico youth set up after Gil disbanded it, deeming it an unnecessary expense. Raul then joined Real Madrid and went on to score 323 goals for Atletico’s great rivals, including 11 against them in 27 appearances. Good call Jesus!

156,542 – Number of shares in Atletico Gil bought in 1992 with allegedly “fictitious” payments upon floatation in 1992. He was later sentenced to three and a half years in prison for this fraud.

6 – Number of managers that Gil worked his way through in the 1993/4 season, a personal best that he remained mightily proud of.

4 – Number of months that Argentine Alfio Basile lasted as manager in 1995 before shouting at Gil, “I’ve had enough. I shit on your contract!” whilst they were both live on Spanish radio! Evidence of whether Basile actually, eh…’followed through’ on this threat is not known.

75 – The total number of court cases involving decisions taken while Gil was Mayor of Marbella by 1999. There were numerous accusations of shady business dealings and allegations of links to organised crime, as the area became a popular residence for British and Russian gangsters.

100 – Official complaints received against the police force, which was under Gil’s control in the same time frame. The most ridiculous of which was that one of his sons was using the police stables to keep his polo ponies.

All of them – Number of players and background staff who shit themselves and then laughed at this quote from Gil in 2003, not long after he’d had a pacemaker fitted “There’s too many bloody passengers in this team! They’re not going to laugh at this shirt any longer! They are not going to
make fun of me . . . They can die! I’m sick of people telling me to relax! They can stick my heart up their arses!” The surgeon who operated on Gil was unavailable for comment.

1996 – The year that Atletico won a League and Cup double. Gil celebrated in the only way such things should be celebrated, by bathing in champagne and parading through Madrid on a white horse. Although some reports suggest that it wasn’t in fact a white horse, it was in fact grey and it wasn’t a grey horse but was in fact an elephant. They do look very similar…

8 – Number of months he was banned from football in 1996 by the Spanish FA after punching the CEO of SD Compostela, José González Fidalgo, in the kisser outside the Professional League headquarters.

2,000,000 – The amount in pounds that the municipality of Marbella, under the control of Gil, “paid” to sponsor the shirts Atletico Madrid, coincidentally under the control of Gil, for the 1999 season. Gil was cleared of fraud but sentenced to six months in prison in 2002 for lesser offences, he never served the prison sentence on health grounds.

390,000,000 – Amount in Euros of Marbella council money that was deemed by the courts not to be sufficiently accounted for from Gil’s time in charge.

28 – The number of entries in his Filmography on the IMDB. Also the number of years Gil was banned from holding public office in 2002 after a series of dubious deals and accounting techniques left Marbella on the verge of bankruptcy.

7 – Number of court cases still outstanding on Gil’s death in 2004 from a heart attack.

15,000 – The number of Atletico fans that paid tribute at Gil’s open coffin at the Vicente Calderon Stadium prior to his funeral in May 2004.